Shipp: The downside of Barnes' court victory on transportation

Gov. Roy Barnes must have breathed a sigh of relief last week when a federal judge said no to an environmental coalition's request to deep-six 137 metro Atlanta transportation projects.

Bill

Shipp

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Barnes had testified earlier that stalling the highway construction could cause economic chaos statewide. That may have been an understatement.

If the greens had prevailed, traffic congestion in and around Atlanta would have gone from occasional to daylong gridlock, many transportation authorities agree.

The vital highway construction to accommodate the new runway at Hartsfield Airport would have been put off indefinitely. Traffic around the airport would have turned into an around-the-clock nightmare.

Improvements on I-85 and State Route 316 (University Parkway) would have been ditched. Congestion between Athens and Atlanta would have gone from really bad to intolerable.

The northern arc of the outer perimeter would have been scrapped. Hundreds of huge carpet-bearing trucks from northwest Georgia's tufted-textile mills would continue to roar daily down I-75 all the way to I-285, then circle around to I-85 to head to the northeastern markets.

Planned HOV lanes on overcrowded I-75 north would have been deleted. The Kennedy Interchange and the Windy Hill/I-75 complex (perhaps the worst traffic mess in the state) would not have been fixed.

The list of transportation projects vital to the continued economic well-being of the metro area and the entire state goes on and on.

Of course, U.S. District Judge Beverly Martin's decision to let the road machines start rolling again does not end the environmentalists' litigation. They will try again and again to win a federal injunction against the highway improvements and expansions.

They have contended, so far unsuccessfully, that the paving should stop because the state is in violation of the federal Clean Air Act.

Predicting what the courts may do in the future is futile. But, for the time being, Atlanta and Georgia have dodged a very damaging bullet.

Quite simply, transportation is what metro Atlanta is all about, why Atlanta exists. Transportation is to Atlanta what gambling is to Las Vegas. Taking away the metro area's ability to move increasing amounts of people and goods would all but assure a long-time economic decline that would have a dire impact on all of Georgia.

Last week's favorable court ruling also validated the creation of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which cobbled the giant transportation plan. GRTA also induced the federal government to approve going forward with the state's plans for future transportation arteries.

Until now, some critics had carped that GRTA served no real purpose other than creating another layer of bureaucrats in an already agency-overloaded transportation system.

But in the end, GRTA saved the day, at least temporarily, with a transportation plan that has passed muster not only with the EPA but with the court as well.

Gov. Barnes may savor vindication of GRTA as a political victory. Yet, he knows the victory has a potentially serious downside, especially if he has ambition to become a presidential or vice presidential candidate.

He has now made enemies of some of the region's most influential environmental activists. And they, like the teachers' unions and the anti-gun lobby, are an integral part of the national Democratic establishment that will help select the next Democratic national ticket.

Curiously, Barnes' transportation triumph is akin to his successes in reforming education and changing the state flag. In each instance, he has pleased the Republican-leaning business community, and angered or divided many of his Democratic allies. That's hardly the way to construct a record for a national Democratic campaign.